


Take the Noodle!

by muldersboyishenthousiasm



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Cheesy, F/M, Fluff, Kinda, Swimming lesson, out of nowhere emotional ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 21:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12466608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muldersboyishenthousiasm/pseuds/muldersboyishenthousiasm
Summary: Swimming lesson.





	Take the Noodle!

“Here, take the noodle, son!”

“Dad! Stop! I see you keep pulling it back,” his little boy whines.

“No, I’m not!” he replies with a smile. “Just keep kicking your feet. We’re almost there”

“You’re doing great, Will. You’re halfway through. Paddle with your hands and kick with your feet.”

They see his forehead creasing with effort. His lungs are burning and he’s struggling to keep his head above the water.

“Daaad!” he cries out desperate.

“Ah, come on Will, you’ve swum twice this distance last week. Do wide circles with your arms.”

His son tries but he’s tired and he wants to grab the noodle and let himself float on it. He watches his mother walk over to his father. Will knows they can touch with their feet the bottom of the pool in this section because they are grownups and only kids can’t reach it. He watches his mother approach his father. She delicately puts her hand on his bicep and murmurs something in his ear.

“Mulder, maybe if you’d just…”

“Scully, I tell you, he did it last week.”

“But, he’s out of breath. Let him rest a bit.”

Will sees his father frowning, and then nodding. His mother looks up expectantly at her partner.

“Alright. But we’ll try again in ten.”

“Muuulder.”

Will sees his father shrugging and slightly pouting and he knows his mother probably just won an argument.

“Okay, buddy! Lesson’s up for today.”

Mulder walks the remaining distance separating him from his son and offers the noodle. The six years old gladly takes it and decides to sit on it as he would a horse.

“Do the seahorse jump, daddy!” Will asks pleadingly.

The little boy’s hair is plastered to his head and Scully can stop herself from reaching and brushing it out of his eyes, like she did and still does for his father. She notices her son’s expression and starts laughing. Her son is definitely Mulder’s, with dark-brown hair and cute puppy face included.

She watches Mulder finally giving in to their son’s supplication. He grabs both ends of the floating noodle and gives Will a quizzical look.

“You sure you won’t fall this time?” he teases his son.

“Of course not, dad!”

Mulder picks up his son and pulls him out of the water before throwing him back in. The little boy’s head disappears underneath the clear liquid for no more than three seconds before resurfacing six feet away. He eagerly gets back on the noodle and paddles up to his father.

It is during those happy moments that Scully is glad not having given up her son for adoption and fought to keep him from harm. She was on her own during most of her pregnancy, with Mulder missing, but without her child she wouldn’t have felt whole. She still can’t imagine how life would have gone by if she would have lost William and if Mulder wouldn’t have been returned to her. To this day, she prefers not to think about the possibilities. Because after all, life was good for them.


End file.
